Table of Contents

Drag & Drop

Drag and Drop gestures make working with forScore much faster and more intuitive. In most cases Drag and Drop provides a second way of doing things, so you’re free to use the original way if you prefer.

Basics

To use Drag and Drop on iOS or iPadOS, tap and hold certain items for a moment until they appear to lift off the screen, then drag your finger away from it slightly to begin the drag process. While holding the item with one finger, you’re free to use your other fingers to interact with forScore or any other app on your device. On macOS, drag and drop works immediately—just click and drag without pausing first. Since Macs don’t support multiple simultaneous pointer interactions, some drag and drop techniques described below may not be practical on macOS.

Note: Contextual Menus also use a long press gesture and change how Drag and Drop works in cases where both are available. Tap and hold an item to show its contextual menu and then drag the preview away to use Drag and Drop (there’s no need to lift your finger first, just use one continuous motion). If you prefer, you can disable either Drag and Drop or Contextual Menus in the Accessibility section of forScore’s settings panel.

In some cases, tapping additional similar items adds them to the drag session (like dragging a score in the Score menu, then tapping other scores to drag them at the same time). You can open and close menus and panels and your drag items will follow your finger as long as it’s touching the screen.

When you’ve dragged your finger over a valid drop zone, you may see some indication that lifting your finger here will perform some kind of action. The drop zone may react by moving or changing colors, or a green “+” badge may appear, for instance, letting you know that dropping the items in this spot will copy them in some way. Each interaction works a little differently, so try some of the following examples for yourself to see how they behave.

Rearranging Items

Many of forScore’s views list items that can be rearranged: setlists and their contents, libraries, audio tracks and MIDI commands in the Metadata panel, accounts in the Services panel, and more. Typically, these items can be arranged by tapping “edit” and then dragging the three horizontal lines on the right-hand side of the cell up or down as needed. With Drag and Drop, there’s no need to enter “edit” mode first—simply tap and hold any part of the item until it lifts up and out of the list, then drag up or down.

Working With Items

Scores and bookmarks can be dragged out of forScore’s Score, Bookmark, and Setlist menus, the Search panel, and you can even drag the current item out of the main view’s title display (and remember: you can use any combination of these sources to add multiple items to your drag session). Drag any single item onto the page to open it, or drag one or more items into the Tab bar to open them in tabs.

Working With Setlists

No feature is better suited to Drag and Drop than Setlists. Creating, editing, and organizing your setlists is dramatically simpler and faster using these new gestures. To rearrange setlists or their contents, drag items up or down as discussed in the “rearranging items” section above. You can also drag a setlist into or out of a folder to move it.

To create a new setlist, drop one or more scores or bookmarks into the main Setlists list and supply a name. To add items to an existing setlist, drop them onto the setlist’s name and they’ll be added to the end of that list. Or, hover over a setlist (or tap it) to open it, then drop the items into the list at a specific point. You can even drag items out from one setlist and into another one to copy items between them.

Importing & Sharing Files

Drag and Drop isn’t just restricted to the same app; you can also drag compatible files into forScore to import them. Drop one or more PDF files into the Score menu to add them to your library, onto the page to import them and open the last one, or drop them into the tab bar to import and open all of them in new tabs. Drop them into the Setlist menu to create a new setlist with them or add them to an existing setlist using the same methods described in the previous section.

Importing works with other files, too. Drop any file type supported by forScore into certain views or panels to import them. Other supported formats include our own 4SC (scores), 4SS (setlists), and 4SB (backups) file types, as well as certain kinds of text and audio files.

You can also drag some items out of forScore to export them: drag a score to share a copy of its source PDF file, or drag an audio track, recording, or backup file to copy it to any other app that accepts them.

Audio Tracks

forScore uses Drag and Drop to help you work with audio files more quickly and flexibly, too. Drag them into and out of the audio file picker to import or export them, or drag them onto the media box to import them and link them to the current score or bookmark.

If the current track is a locally stored file, you can drag the track’s title out of the media box to send a copy to another app. Otherwise, if it’s a track that comes from your device’s shared Music library, you won’t be able to export the file but you can still use Drag and Drop to add the track to another score or bookmark in your library (drop it into the Metadata panel’s audio track list).

Annotating

While annotating, use Drag and Drop to rearrange your drawing presets by dragging them left or right. You can also work with images in several ways: drop an image onto the page (from the Photos app, Safari, or any app that allows you to drag images) and forScore will place it as an annotation. Resize it, reposition it, then tap outside of it to complete the process.

Create new stamps by dragging images from other apps directly into the Stamp Creator’s canvas. Use the Selection tool to select an area of drawn annotations, then use Drag and Drop to copy them as an image to other apps. Since you’re working with standard images in both cases, you can even combine these two examples to create new stamps from annotations you’ve previously drawn by hand, all without leaving the app or needing to go to your computer to deal with image editing software.

Services

In the Services panel, use Drag and Drop to move files between folders or drop certain things here to upload them. Drag scores, bookmarks, setlists, audio files, backups, or CSV files into the Services panel to upload them.

MIDI

Drag commands between the various MIDI sections in the Metadata panel and the Button editor to copy them, or drag commands onto the page to create a new button with them.

Multiple Windows

On iPadOS, Drag & Drop gestures can be used to create new windows. Drag a score or setlist to the left or right edge of the screen until it shows the forScore app icon, then let go to open a new window displaying that content.

Disabling Drag and Drop

Some users may find that iOS’ Drag and Drop gestures interfere with their ability to work. Although iOS does not currently provide a system setting to disable them, forScore offers an option in the Accessibility section of its Settings panel called “Drag and Drop” that significantly alters how it utilizes these gestures. When this setting is disabled, forScore does not make items available for dragging and most interactions return to how they worked with older versions of iOS.

Note that this setting does not affect how forScore receives drop gestures originating from other apps, however, so you can still do things like drag a PDF file from the Files app directly into forScore to import it.

Cue

Our remote control system, Cue, allows you connect multiple devices together wirelessly to coordinate your page turns and program changes. It uses both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to discover and communicate with nearby devices, and performance may vary based on environmental factors.

Note: Although Wi-Fi must be enabled for the app to discover nearby devices, an internet connection is not required when using Cue.

Roles

In order to properly coordinate your actions, Cue requires you to pick a role when initiating or joining a session. A “Leader” is responsible for turning pages and navigating between different scores or bookmarks in their library. A “Follower” lets their device follow along automatically, either by responding to page turns, program changes, or both.

Note: A Program Change is how we refer to navigation between songs. When a leader opens a new score or bookmark from their library or flips from the end of one piece to the beginning of the next, that’s a Program Change.

Tap the Cue icon in the Display Options overlay to choose your role: “Lead,” “Follow Page Turns,” “Follow Program Changes,” “Follow Both,” or pick “Dual Page mode” (discussed later in this section). Tap “open panel” or select Cue from the Tools menu to open the Cue connection panel which lists available and connected devices and lets you change your role or disconnect from the current session.

Device-Specific Considerations

Page turns work differently depending on your device’s orientation and settings. If a leader is using their device in landscape orientation, forScore will send page up and down messages but only other landscape-oriented devices will respond. Similarly, half-page turn messages can be sent by a leader who uses them, and only the connected devices who are using portrait mode and who have half-page turns enabled will see the effect.

Dual Page Mode

When using forScore on one device and the standalone Cue app on another, a special Dual Page mode lets you view two full pages side-by-side. One page appears on the primary device, and Cue displays the next page wirelessly. Tap or swipe on either screen to advance, two pages at a time. Links and buttons are also supported on either screen, so you don’t have to worry about which device you need to tap.

The standalone Cue app is currently available on the App Store worldwide.

Cue 2

With forScore 14.4 we introduced a new version of the Cue remote control protocol called Cue 2 which uses Apple’s modern networking frameworks to provide faster and more reliable connections. Cue 2 is compatible with forScore 14.4 or later and the standalone Cue app (version 2.4 or later). You can switch back to the original Cue 1 protocol if needed to connect to devices running older versions of either app: tap the circled ellipsis button in the top left-hand corner of the Cue panel to switch between protocol versions.

Dashboard

If you allow it, forScore can track which scores, bookmarks, and setlists you view and for how long. With this information collected, the Dashboard feature in the tools menu can give you valuable insights into your playing habits and helps keep you on track. Three tabs along the top or bottom of the screen (shown on the left of the screen in a sidebar when space allows) give you different ways of viewing and using this information:

Analytics

The Analytics tab shows information collected over the past ninety days. It can show you statistics for either items (scores and bookmarks) or setlists, and displays either the total amount of time you spent playing or the number of views.

Tap on any day to see a detailed list of items or setlists in the lower portion of the screen. This list shows everything you viewed on that particular day and is sorted from most played or viewed to least. You can tap on any item or setlist in this list to see how often you’ve viewed or played it over the past ninety days.

Goals

The Goals tab helps you reach a minimum number of views or amount of play time for each day, week, month, or all time. Goals can be item- or setlist-specific, or they can be more general.

The main list of goals shows your current progress as a circular view and, if your goal is time-specific, uses an additional view in the lower left-hand corner to show your results for the previous term. For instance, a weekly goal would prominently display this week’s progress with a smaller view for last week’s results.

Tap a goal to edit it or to view your results for the past ninety days. The timeline along the top of the screen shows your results for the past ninety days: tap on any of these graphics to share your progress with friends or colleagues via email, message, Twitter, Facebook, and more. It’s a great way to hold yourself accountable or to share your success.

Reports

The Reports tab lets you periodically share more detailed information with a colleague or instructor as a PDF document. To begin, create a new report template and tap the circled arrow button to edit it.

Here, you can customize your report to display progress for all items and/or setlists or for one in particular. Select day, week, or month, and choose how far back you’d like the report to go. Once you’re done, tap the back button and tap the report to view its results and use the action button in the top right-hand corner to share it.

Note: The information forScore collects is stored locally on your device. It doesn’t get sent to any servers, and won’t be shared with anyone unless you specifically choose to do so. Visit forscore.co/privacy to learn more.

Metadata

Tag your files with different categories or metadata values to make them browsable and sortable

Tap a suggestion at the top of the keyboard while typing to quickly add existing values to an item

Tap on a metadata label to customize its name and icon to better suit your needs

Adding information to each item in your music library allows you to easily search for a piece, browse through your library, and sort items in various ways.

You can view and edit an item’s metadata by tapping the title of the current item in the center of the main toolbar, by tapping the circular button to the right of any item in most menus, or by using edit mode in a menu to select multiple items and batch edit their properties at once.

The panel is divided up into sections, using either a sidebar when space permits or a tab bar along the bottom of the screen.

Properties

Layout:

The Properties tab shows a thumbnail image of the current item along with info about the item or items you’re editing. You can swipe or use the arrow buttons to turn pages, and you can tap a page to open it (any changes you’ve made will be saved automatically).

If you’re editing a score, you’ll see a book icon on the right that allows you to adjust your page numbers to match printed copies, if needed. You’ll also see a margin adjustment slider that lets you increase the size of all pages in a score by the same amount at once. This is useful for removing uniform margins, but consider using the “Crop” function in the tools menu to adjust or re-center individual pages more precisely. Cropping takes precedence, so the margin adjuster won’t affect cropped pages.

When you’re editing a bookmark, this portion of the screen allows you to view and change its start and end page numbers.

Metadata:

Each score and bookmark can be tagged with a title, rating, difficulty, reference, time, duration, tempo, key, and multiple composers, genres, tags, and labels. While typing in a new composer, genre, tag, or label, you may see a suggestion appear in the toolbar at the top of the keyboard. These suggestions, already in use elsewhere in your library, are updated automatically as you type and let you quickly reuse values and save time. You can also access these values by tapping the three horizontal lines to the right of the active text box.

A box on the left-hand side of each text field shows you what will happen when you close the metadata panel. A check mark indicates that the changes will be saved, while an empty box indicates that any changes will be discarded. If you’re batch editing files, a check mark indicates that the current value will replace any existing values for each file while a plus symbol indicates that new values will be added to each file’s existing information if it’s not already included. These boxes are updated automatically as you type, but you can tap them at any time to change them.

To add multiple composers, genres, tags, or labels to your score, use a comma to separate each phrase (i.e. “Favorites, Warm-up pieces”). Your score will then be listed under each of those items in the menu.

When you change the title of a score, forScore renames the PDF file to match as closely as possible. If you prefer, you can disable this behavior in the “advanced options” section of forScore’s settings panel (this adds a “rename PDF” option to the metadata panel’s title bar menu so you can still rename a PDF manually).

Customization:

Customize metadata types by renaming them or changing their icon. Tap a metadata label on the left side of the row to edit these attributes (all types shown in this list can be customized, however Title cannot be renamed).

PDF Info Fetching:

PDF files sometimes contain their own information for title, author, subject, and keywords, which can be used by forScore as values for title, composer, genre, and tags respectively. While editing any of these fields, choose “Fetch…” from the title bar menu to see if any of this information exists and then decide if you’d like to use it or not.

Setlist and Libraries

The “setlists” tab lets you quickly manage which setlists the current item is a part of. Tap a setlist to add the current item to it (a blue check mark will appear) and tap it again to remove it. If you have any libraries set up on your device, an additional “libraries” tab allows you to make similar changes.

Audio

If you have an audio track of a particular piece, you can link that track to the corresponding sheet music in forScore and control playback directly from within the app. Select the “Audio” tab and tap the + button to select tracks from the Music app, or tap the document button to view files stored in the app’s documents directory. (Audio files can be created using the record feature, imported from other apps, or added via the Files app or File Sharing interface.)

The media box updates every time you turn the page, disappearing if there is no track associated with the current score or bookmark, so you don’t have to spend time looking through your audio library every time you want to listen to it—just press play.

If multiple tracks are associated with the current score, swipe left and right over the album artwork to move between them.

Learn more about working with audio tracks in the next section.

MIDI

In the “MIDI” section of the metadata panel, you can assign a unique command to each score and open it with some MIDI devices. You can also save a list of commands to be sent out each time that score is opened. If you plan to use the same set of commands more than once, presets make it easy to save them and assign them to other scores later.

Note: USB-enabled MIDI devices can often connect to an iOS device via Apple’s Camera Connection Kit, while others may require an adapter like the iRig Midi.